My Mars Red Mk1 - Thread REBOOT- P82

Gurds, did the Starlet rack cause the bumpsteer or do they have it even with oe racks? Where did the tie rod joint end up after shimming?

 

Hi Gurdeep - at Curby I said I would let you know where I got those stainless steel lanyards - they were from Primary Fasteners Ltd, Solihull, 0121 535 7094

Web used to be prifast.co.uk

I bought 6 in total spanning 6" to 12" long, 24.50 delivered. Nice things, proper swagings, stainless, MIL-spec

If you search for them now this link comes up - dont think this is the same company but the lanyards look the same.

Cheers

Rob

http://www.specialty-fasteners.co.uk/prifast

 

Hi Tristan, The Starlet rack was 10mm narrower than mk1 rack but this was because I had also altered the width of mk mk1 rack to suite my ball joint extenders and tie rod flip. So firstly I shimmed the rack to be as wide as the mk1 rack then I shimmed the tie rod end to fine tune the bumpsteer. The passenger side end moved further down by around 10mm (not exact as I can't remember) and the drivers side needed no shimming. Odd I know but it's cleaned it up.

Thanks Rob. I'll look into those.

Gurds

 

Curby September 2015.

Here we are fuel being topped up ready for action.



We turned up to Curby with Rambow, Eddie and his son Jerome ready to stretch the mk1's legs and see if all this hard work would pay off. This was the first time the old girl was back in anger in a whole year! Had it really been that long? We unloaded the car and went over some final checks. Tyres pressure were adjusted to cold values and the various data loggers and video capture devices started. After the briefing and sighting laps I queued up ready for action.

I went out for my first session and started to give it some beans. The car felt good. Very good! Turn in was much sharper than ever before and the steering angle required had been reduced.

Next session I took out Pete Bassi as he had been waiting for a Pax lap.... Since last September! I think he was slightly impressed He jumped straight back into his own car and promptly span it!

Third session in and I turned up the wick, yes already. With a moderate power level selected, I pushed on harder. A little wheelspin at higher revs but I had no option but to use 2nd gear. 3rd was just too long to use. The laps had got significantly quicker and I set my personal best. A whopping 0.7s knocked clean off and the lap wasn't even that clean.

I spent the rest of the day trying to beat this lap without success but it was enough and I set not only the fastest time of the day but the second fastest time ever recorded in club history. I did notice and odd clunk at the molehill every lap there on though. More about that later.

CGTi member RobT had also brought along his corner weight scales so that attendees could weigh their cars. I put mine on between sessions. Unsurprisingly the car had gained a lot of weight. It weighed 860kgs back when it was NA but tips the scales at a hefty 922kgs!



Lap info being discussed with Rambow.



The car cornered flat. No Apex's were harmed.




Well here is an in car lap of my car to give you an idea of how it is to drive now.

[video=youtube;ausbVutHFYY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ausbVutHFYY[/video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ausbVutHFYY


After a fun packed day, we finished off with a nice meal at a local restaurant. A great way to end a great day.



The next day, I was going through my data comparing sessions and trying to work out why I couldn't go any faster throughout the day. All the right hand bend sectors were definitely quicker but I always lost the time gained on the left hander through the molehill area. I took a look at the car and noticed this.



Yes that's the tyre touching the shock. The camber bolts had not been torqued up enough and had been moving while driving! Eeek! Well that would explain it, I'm pretty sure uncontrolled toe and camber isn't desirable.

Next up, Surviving Forge Action Day with the Military.

Gurds

 

Good to see this back in action! Top work as usual!

Neil

 

Just watched the latest action from the trackday session. Car looks very fast! Great to see the progress

 

Hi Gurds,

Saw you at Forge action day at Combe but couldn't find you In the paddock to come and have a chat and a nose about at the car unfortunately. Car looked like it was going well though!

With your splitter at the front, how do you secure it at the back? I see it has a series of holes, do you use this to attach it to the lower brace between the wishbone bolts? Also you don't have any bracing on the front, like some tie rods back to the bumper etc, does the frame you use to attach it to the bumper mounting bolts on the inner chassis leg do a good enough job to stop it flexing at higher speeds?

I plan to make one this winter for mine, so makes sense to base it on yours that works

 

Hi Sam,

Sorry for the late response. Thanks mate.

The splitter does have a frame across the front which attaches to the chassis legs where the bumper mount holes are. This is built from 10mm box section steel and it bolted to the splitter. The splitter itself is 12mm exterior grade ply as the old 9mm one was developing cracks. The rear end lines up with my lower strut brace across my wishbone mounts which it bolts to via 3x m8 bolts. I don't think it flexes but it does need to be bolted up tight. I do plan to add some supports for the leading edge at some point. Just haven't got round to it yet.

Gurds

 

To follow on, I also attended the Castle Combe Forge Action day with the aim to help out the Mission Motorsport guys along with Nick the Prawn and Diamond Hell too. I would be giving charity passenger rides to public who donated to the worthy charity and let me enjoy my passion at the same time! Here is a link to the charity website for anyone who would like to read more about it.

http://www.missionmotorsport.org/

This would also be the first high speed shakedown for the car and would let me stretch it's legs and see if anything fell off. Rambow and I arrived early and prepped the car for the day. I had planned to bring some wets but the weather was dry all day thankfully.



Lots of time was spent chatting to the guys and meeting new people too.




It was a very busy day but thankfully we had a priority lane giving us direct access to the track when we wanted.



My dad came along to pose around my car for the day and generally act cool. lol.



We added some Mission Motorsport livery for the day. Stickers are a good way of covering poor paintwork too ;0).



The car performed faultlessly for most of the day with temperatures well in the happy zone and chassis feeling tight. I ran at one bar all day and decided it was enough for this type of event.

The passengers all seemed to enjoy the passenger laps very much but I had to cut the day short around 3.30pm with a slipping clutch. Great!

Here is an in car video of one of the sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChxR8F4A80M

[video=youtube;ChxR8F4A80M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChxR8F4A80M[/video]

Plenty of pretty pictures were taken throughout the day. Thank you to everyone for the shots including Diamond Hell.

















A great day and would do it again given the chance. Thank you very much for the oppertunity Jim.

Gurds

 

Great update. Misson Motorsport is a very worthy charity and I know first hand the guys REALLY enjoy the passenger laps

This car is a real credit to you Gurds and you should be very satisfied with how it is turning out after all your hard work

 

Awesome wee golf
love the videos mate

 

Thank you very much guys. You guys know first hand how much work stuff like this can be. All in all I'm very happy with the first outing and am already looking forward to using it more.

Gurds

 

Absolutely amazing mate! all the hard work has paid off, a real credit!
Goes like a stabbed rat!

 

Cool looking dad.

Wish my kids thought I look cool but even my 11 year old tells me not to walk around the house in my undies - "you're a very ugly man dad".

 

With the event of a slipping clutch, the gearbox had to come off for inspection. Plans were to check for clutch damage and/or oil leaks.

Gearbox seems to have some oil in the bell housing.



The clutch however doesn't look bad. No broken rivets, springs or damage.





Crank seal is happy.



The slave cylinder on the other hand doesn't look great.



Hmm. Everything was given a thorough clean up and reassembled as I suspect the dodgy slave throwing hydraulic oil onto the clutch couldn't have been a good combo. So a new one was fitted and while I was there, I threw in a 4.1kg flywheel, well why not.









Taking the car out for a test drive, the clutch seems to have stopped slipping but I will be keeping an eye on it. In future, I plan to upgrade it instead.

My SCCH order that Sparrow ran came through too. I am really looking forward to trying these out...



And finally I bought a new XL passenger seat as a lot of the passengers I get are larger than me. Don't say I never do anything for you guys! lol.



Gurds

 

My dad invented the selfie over 20 years ago lol

 

Pre-Brands prep

I managed to secure a last minute place at the Club GTi Trackday Tour finale thanks to Steve Morgan over on Northloop having to give up his place last minute. Works for me, thanks Steve!

With this looming, I took the old tin can out to dust off the cobwebs and it a once over. After some adjustment, the clutch wasn't slipping anymore and the car felt strong! But these evenings are never with out drama and the car lost drive out on the road! I managed to nurse it back home and investigated what was going on.

I left the car started in gear and got outside to check out the problem....



That nut is connected to the outer CV and holds it to the hub. Well normally it does.

I took it apart to find the drive hub had sheared across the face.









Given the damage, a new drive flange, wheel bearing and outer CV joint were fitted.

Nige had a good suggestion. Remove the hub with the shock absorber still attached means the camber and tracking isn't thrown out during removal/refitting. Top tip.



Apparently this is a common failure on a mk1 golf of which I've seen once in the 15+years of mk1 ownership. Guess the extra grip from the new chassis setup will exploit weak areas now. Good job I road tested it. Imagine having a wheel come off at a trackday.......................

The car was loaded up and ready for a fun filled Friday at Brands Hatch.

Gurds

 

I've just read this whole thread over two evenings after seeing it at brands last week.
What an awesome car and love the development it has had through the years. The engine bay is a work of art

Hope to see it at another track day soon and maybe get a ride in it

 

Thanks Paul. Anytime mate.

Gurds